Adult Social Care Glossary, v 0.6

63 Assessment of a young carer's needs for support

(1) Where it appears to a local authority that a young carer is likely to have needs for support after becoming 18, the authority must, if it is satisfied that it would be of significant benefit to the young carer to do so and if the consent condition is met, assess—
(a) whether the young carer has needs for support and, if so, what those needs are, and
(b) whether the young carer is likely to have needs for support after becoming 18 and, if so, what those needs are likely to be.

(2) An assessment under subsection (1) is referred to in this Part as a “young carer's assessment”.

(3) The consent condition is met if—
(a) the young carer has capacity or is competent to consent to a young carer's assessment being carried out and the young carer does so consent, or
(b) the young carer lacks capacity or is not competent so to consent but the authority is satisfied that carrying out a young carer's assessment would be in the young carer's best interests.

(4) Where a young carer refuses a young carer's assessment and the consent condition is accordingly not met, the local authority must nonetheless carry out the assessment if the young carer is experiencing, or is at risk of, abuse or neglect.

(5) Where a local authority, having received a request to carry out a young carer's assessment from the young carer concerned or a parent of the young carer, decides not to comply with the request, it must give the person who made the request—
(a) written reasons for its decision, and
(b) advice and information about what can be done to prevent or delay the development by the young carer of needs for support in the future.

64 Young carer's assessment: requirements etc.

(1) A young carer's assessment must include an assessment of—
(a) whether the young carer is able to provide care for the person in question and is likely to continue to be able to do so after becoming 18,
(b) whether the young carer is willing to do so and is likely to continue to be willing to do so after becoming 18,
(c) the impact on the matters specified in section 1(2) of what the young carer's needs for support are likely to be after the young carer becomes 18,
(d) the outcomes that the young carer wishes to achieve in day-to-day life, and
(e) whether, and if so to what extent, the provision of support could contribute to the achievement of those outcomes.

(2) A local authority, in carrying out a young carer's assessment, must have regard to—
(a) the extent to which the young carer works or wishes to work (or is likely to wish to do so after becoming 18),
(b) the extent to which the young carer is participating in or wishes to participate in education, training or recreation (or is likely to wish to do so after becoming 18).

(3) A local authority, in carrying out a young carer's assessment, must involve—
(a) the young carer,
(b) the young carer's parents, and
(c) any person whom the young carer or a parent of the young carer requests the authority to involve.

(4) When carrying out a young carer's assessment, a local authority must also consider whether, and if so to what extent, matters other than the provision of support could contribute to the achievement of the outcomes that the young carer wishes to achieve in day-to-day life.

(5) Having carried out a young carer's assessment, a local authority must give the young carer—
(a) an indication as to whether any of the needs for support which it thinks the young carer is likely to have after becoming 18 are likely to meet the eligibility criteria (and, if so, which ones are likely to do so), and
(b) advice and information about—
(i) what can be done to meet or reduce the needs for support which it thinks the young carer is likely to have after becoming 18;
(ii) what can be done to prevent or delay the development by the young carer of needs for support in the future.

(6) But in a case where the young carer is not competent or lacks capacity to understand the things which the local authority is required to give under subsection (5), that subsection is to have effect as if for “must give the young carer” there were substituted “must give the young carer's parents”.

(7) Where a person to whom a young carer's assessment relates becomes 18, the local authority must decide whether to treat the assessment as a carer's assessment; and if the authority decides to do so, this Part applies to the young carer's assessment as if it were a carer's assessment that had been carried out after the person had become 18.

(8) In considering what to decide under subsection (7), a local authority must have regard to—
(a) when the young carer's assessment was carried out, and
(b) whether it appears to the authority that the circumstances of the person to whom the young carer's assessment relates have changed in a way that might affect the assessment.